Mayor makes Kliptown granny first time homeowner

05 November 2015

 

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau had to negotiate his way through narrow and treacherous passages in Kliptown’s informal settlement known as Angola on Wednesday November 3 to reach the shack of a 95-year-old semi-blind Soweto woman so he could hand her the keys to her newly built brick-and-mortar house nearby.

Mayor Tau, who was accompanied by Member of Mayoral Committee for Housing Councillor Dan Bovu, appeared unfazed by the stench of stagnant water permeating the air as he zig-zagged his way to the shack that Gogo Nontombi Mothibedi had called home for the past 50 years.

But, in order to hand the keys over to her, the Mayor had to first demolish the two-roomed structure.

There was a moment of comic relief when MaNyauza, as she is popularly known in the area, first seemed reluctant to leave her shack and asked Mayor Tau where she was being taken to and why.

Mayor Tau explained that gone were her days of living in a shack as she was now a proud owner of a four-roomed RDP house.
The frail-looking old lady seemed dazed and overwhelmed by the battery of press photographers who had come to cover the handing over of fully subsidised freehold housing units by the Mayor in Kliptown Extension 6.

Struggling to walk, MaNyauza had to be carried on the back of a City of Johannesburg employee to a waiting vehicle to ferry her to her new home about a kilometre away.

MaNyauza, whose five children have all died, was one of 60 Kliptown residents who were allocated formal housing units as part of the Kliptown Urban Renewal Programme undertaken by the City.

The programme, which started in 2005, is aimed at clearing the Greater Kliptown area of informal settlements and providing residents with formal housing.

Mayor Tau had earlier told a media conference that the relocation and allocation process was undertaken in a block-by-block, phased approach.

“Vacant land is first developed before families are moved into the area. Another group of 50 beneficiaries will take occupancy of their RDP houses later this month,” he said. 

Mayor Tau said the primary objective of the City of Johannesburg’s Housing Department was to complete the redevelopment of Kliptown as soon as possible.

“This also includes the rehousing of those residents living in informal structures in the shortest and most viable timeframe possible while stimulating the development of the overall integrated Kliptown project through infrastructure investment,” he said. 

MMC Bovu said the renewal project was aimed at addressing the needs and requirements of the Kliptown community. 
There are 14 informal settlements in Kliptown and the total housing backlog stands at 6 900 units. To date a total of 1 129 RDP houses have been completed in Pimville Zone 9 and Klipspruit Extension 2. 

Cllr Tau also handed over house keys to Mozambican-born Pedro Almeirda, who has been living in South Africa since 1952.
The widower was at a loss for words when he received the keys to his new four-roomed house, which also boasts an inside toilet and a shower.

MaNyauza had mixed emotions, though. Although she was elated at being moved to a new home, she lamented the fact that none of her children was still alive to share it with her.
“I suppose it’s God’s will,” she said as she tucked in her first meal in her new pad.